Cecilia Nembou

President of Divine Word University (DWU), Papua New Guinea

Visions for future knowledge societies
In this statement, knowledge means expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education and development means a fundamental change in the well-being of an individual or society derived from their capacity to harness the benefits of a knowledge society in a sustainable manner. Knowledge is a necessary and sufficient condition for human advancement. Every year the DWU sets herself a motivational theme. In 2016 the theme is ‘DWU in collaborative learning and knowledge creation in the global higher education network.’ Our theme reflects our strategic vision for the third decade which envisions DWU as the first eUniversity in the South Pacific region. The advancement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as the driving factors in knowledge creation has placed knowledge in the Cloud through the global network of information and communication technologies (ICTs) making it accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world to co-create knowledge by research and higher learning activities. With the application of appropriate ICTs for e-learning and e-teaching, e-research and e-support services, DWU will operate in the Cloud to enrol students, co-create knowledge and share knowledge with all e-learners throughout Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands and the world.

DWU will take transnational education to the Cloud and build human capacity such that people have the ability to be the change they want to see and create their own future. To enable our staff and students to meaningfully participate in this vision, DWU has embarked on capacity building for facilitated e-learning and e-teaching, moving from the traditional face-to-face (F2F) mode to online and blended learning pedagogies. Academic staff and their students are actively seeking out online research collaborators for benchmarking and individual advancement. DWU will make a significant contribution to PNG’s advancement towards a knowledge society by creating a future whereby education is accessible to all citizens via ICTs.